Second Best
by ChristinaAngel
Summary: A night out drinking, a misled Prussia and a centuries-old issue causes a blow out between Romano and Spain. Spain/Romano


**You know how I said that I would never write yaoi fics all those years ago? Well Hetalia drove me to it. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia, the brilliant thing that it is. **

**Pairing: Spain/Romano, hint of USUK, Japan/Greece and France/Canada. **

**Second Best**

Romano was simmering on the sofa quietly. Normally he would be ranting and railing at whoever was closest but that was the problem, the stupid idiot whose house he was in wasn't here. And he really didn't like talking to himself, it made him look crazy and Italy Romano was not crazy! Just slightly - _worried_- not worried, concerned about the tomatoes. That was it, the tomatoes.

Just one more try.

He held the phone to his ear but when it went to voicemail again he growled at it.

"Stupid fucking phone, why won't you pick up bastard?" Screw not talking to himself, Bastard Spain drove him to it. He pressed re-dial and the phone rang again, except this time someone picked up.

At the bar, most of the nations had decided to go out to an impromptu drinking session.

"I bet I can drink more than you." Prussia challenged his brother who just rolled his eyes and watched as Italy skipped to a stranger and started to chatter away from them. "Hey West where are you going?" His younger brother was crossing the room, striding towards Northern Italy who was being lead out of the room by the stranger he had been talking to.

"What's wrong Gilbert? All alone?" Francis smirked beside Prussia.

"So are you Bonnefoy, your little England has gone for the younger one." He gestured to where England and America seemed to be having a deep conversation in the corner. France snorted.

"I have seen it coming for ages, they were just very dim. Now Matthew is who I like." Francis waved at the quiet man clutching his beer like it was a lifeline.

"Who?" Prussia asked and France looked annoyed but let it go.

"Never mind. What are we going to do about Antonio?" The blond jerked his head towards his moping friend who was staring at the table like it had personally wronged him and that it was responsible for all the strife in his life. "Any idea why he's like that?"

"It could be because he's missing his little boy toy and is desperately worried about him, considering that he was so sick this morning that he couldn't come to the meeting. Or it could be because I took his phone and won't let him go home to check on _ickle Lovi_." Prussia said, glancing at the despondent Spaniard.

"You're sadistic." France commented.

"Are you judging me?" Prussia's pale eyebrow jerked up in amusement at that thought.

"No I'm searching through his phone." Prussia's mouth dropped open as he saw the phone in Francis' hands.

"How did you get that?" He asked France who smirked.

"It was sticking out your back pocket. Too tempting to resist. Look a voicemail from Romano." He pressed the button and they both leaned in to hear it. At the endthey both sighed in disappointment.

"What? That's it? Death threats and insults?" Prussia said, aghast at the fact there was nothing interesting or juicy on the message.

"It's Romano." France reminded Prussia and realisation dawned. This was the same man who had slammed his head into a table after he hit on him.

"Maybe he just needs a little push." Prussia smiled, a smile that would have made Russia run in fear. He filched the phone from Francis' hands and striding to a quiet corner of the bar where he waited for the phone to ring again.

***

Prussia did not have to wait long. Barely five minutes had gone before the phone started to vibrate. He quickly answered it as Spain was showing signs of stirring at the familiar ring tone.

"What's up little Italy? You feel better?" Prussia answered the phone with.

"WHY ARE YOU ANSWERING THE PHONE?!" Romano yelled, his relief at the phone finally being answered being destroyed when he worked out that it was not Spain answering the phone.

"Because I had it." Prussia answered, leaning against the bar wall to watch Japan manage to lose his iron clad control with Greece. "Should have made a bet on it." He said to himself before more angry yelling brought him back to the fact that he was still on the phone.

"WHERE IS HE?"

"Little Italy, you need to relax, it's not good for your blood pressure." Prussia taunted, this was fun. He could literally hear him fuming over the phone. "Good boy. Now who's this 'he' you're talking about?" Then he sat back and waited for the explosion.

"ANTONIO YOU MORON! SPAIN! ESPANA! SPAGNA! WHATEVER THE HELL YOU CALL HIM!" That was worth waiting for.

"Well Antonio is talking to Feliciano at the moment, would you like me to take a message?" Prussia asked politely and Romano took the phone away from his ear to stare at it. Prussia and polite did not go together.

"What the hell do you mean talking to him? And why the hell are you talking like that, idiot?"

"I was trying to be nice! I mean Spain and Italy are drinking and talking and laughing together. Do I need to make it clearer to you?" Prussia asked condescendingly and Romano's insides went ice cold, very different than that morning when he had felt hot all over.

"But I thought he was coming straight home." Romano whispered to himself but Prussia heard. _Did I go too far? _He shook himself. If he did, he might as well drive the point home.

"Yeah the nations all went out together for a drink, I don't think Antonio even bothered protesting. By the look of him, he doesn't seem to be regretting it." Prussia winced as he looked over at Antonio, the picture of misery. "Anyway bye now!" And Prussia hung up.

***

Romano snapped the phone silently. That _bastard. _How dare he prefer Feliciano over him?

"There is nothing that he has that I don't have, we're twins for God's sake!" He said angrily to the room. "I mean I'm smarter than he is." _Really? Or are we just more cynical? _A nasty, little voice in the back of his head spoke up. "Shut up!" Romano hissed, smacking his hands against his head. He needed to get Prussia's words out of his head.

The Italian caught sight of an ugly vase Germany had bought him at his brother's insistence. That made a satisfying crash against the wall. Next was a china figure that Spain had gotten him when he first moved in. After smashing a few more pieces, Romano sank to the ground. It hadn't made him feel any better.

***

A few hours later, a much drunker Prussia marched over to Spain to slide into a seat beside him.

"You need to cheer up. I know that your boy toy is really sick but you can't be this whipped." Spain's head jerked up to stare at Prussia.

"Lovi was feeling better when I called at lunch." He said in a daze. "Why do you think he's really sick?"

"If I didn't hear it from you, then it must have been when I called him up on your phone. Coughing all over the place, man he sounded terrible." Prussia said bluntly and Spain tried to process all this information.

"Lovi's worse?" He asked and when Prussia nodded, he was gone. Prussia blinked and the chair was empty.

"He must really like him." Prussia admitted to France who had stumbled over, clutching onto a helpless Matthew.

"Then why did you lie to him?" Francis asked, having caught the tail end of the conversation.

"Lying is fun." Was the only answer before he signalled for another drink.

***

Spain stumbled, thankful that his key worked in the lock.

"Romano? You here?" He heard a muffled crash from upstairs and hurried to that place. When he walked into Romano's old bedroom, he froze. Broken bits of china and glass lay across the floor and a small ball in the middle of it all solved the mystery of where Romano was.

"Lovi! I was so worried." Spain quickly approached but the boy had jerked himself up.

"S-Stay away." He stumbled on his words before rising up slowly, drawing himself up. "You fucking idiot." Romano hissed and Spain flinched, the anger hitting him like a physical thing. "You were worried? Really? When you out there fucking my younger brother, you were worried?!"

"What are you talking about Lovi?" Spain asked, uncharacteristically serious and focused on Romano.

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" Romano yelled, unable to hear the term of endearment coming from one of the only people he actually genuinely cared about and who had betrayed him. "Don't you call me that you bastard." He muttered and Spain raised his hands in a pacifying gesture but only served to make Romano angrier - that was what you did to crazy people and he was not crazy!

"I didn't do anything with Feliciano, Romano." Spain said clearly and the Italian threw him a sceptical glare.

"You've been missing for hours and haven't answered my calls. Even during the meeting you were texting to see if I was okay so of course I thought something like a military attack had happened to you. And then when Prussia said - " Romano stopped here, cursing himself for saying too much.

"What did Prussia say?" Spain asked calmly, his blood starting to boil. Passion could work both ways.

"He said that you were _with _Feliciano." Romano snapped, tensing up slightly as Spain shifted nearer.

"Feliciano did have a drink with us but Germany dragged him off when he started to sing 'I Feel Pretty'." Spain explained, still confused about what Romano was so upset about.

"I thought that you were out on a date with Feliciano when I called and it made me feel weird and you supposed to be coming straight back and I didn't like it and it's all your fault you asshole!" Romano rambled slightly, finally coming to his point. _This is why he prefers Feliciano to you, I mean have you ever seen little Feli shout or insult someone? _Romano winced and rubbed his forehead, that little doubtful voice was back again. He had thought he had gotten rid of it after he became independent, after all he didn't need some country's approval especially a lazy-assed country like Spain.

"Are you okay Lovi?" Spain asked, worry creasing his forehead, he started walking towards Romano who backed away before falling backwards onto the bed.

"No I'm not okay, I've got a perfect, irritating younger brother, a dense idiot trying to make everything better when he doesn't even know what the problem is and this stupid voice in my head won't shut up about how crap I am even though I know everything it is going to say because I've already heard it all. And don't touch me!" Romano snarled and Spain withdrew his hands, hurt flickering in his eyes before he started to process what Lovino had said.

"Do you feel inferior to your brother, Lovi?" He asked hesitantly, showing uncommon sensitivity.

"Why would I feel inferior to him? I'm ten times better than him. It's not my fault that no one sees that." Romano muttered the last bit, curling up in a ball on the bed, drawing his knees up to his chest.

"Is that the problem? That you think that no one sees that you are just as good, if not better, than Feli?" Spain asked, carefully sitting down beside Romano who had now taken to glaring at the floor.

"Sometimes." The word was so muffled that Spain had difficultly catching it but he still heard it and he almost laughed, relief that he had found out what was wrong and that he could help fix it flooding through his body. Of course he showed no amusement in his face or voice but he still sounded more like his cheerful self.

"But Lovi you are better than Feli." Spain said, as if Romano was a young child again and he was reassuring him that it didn't matter that he had broken that vase, it was horrible anyway. This seemed to have the opposite reaction to what Antonio hoped when Romano launched himself off the bed to tower over Spain, anger obvious in his eyes.

"Don't lie to me you bastard! When I was younger, all you could fucking talk about was how good Feliciano was at cleaning, how good he was at cooking, how he was so obedient and so much better than me! I tried to clean but I just made a bigger mess." Romano's eyes shined with tears for a moment but they were gone so quickly that Spain was not sure whether they had ever been there. The slight crack in Romano's voice could not be hidden though.

"Lovi you can't hold that against me! I had just got you and your attitude was really harsh. I wasn't used to you then, but I grew to care for you later." Romano went red at this and Spain managed to resist - just - squealing loudly and hugging the younger nation.

"The only reason I was like that because I knew I could never match up to me brother in painting and cooking and cleaning so I had to do something to stand out. Besides I have exactly the same attitude now, how am I better?" Romano asked, turning his face away so Spain could not see how much he wanted to hear this.

"You're more interesting than Feli and plus you've Lovi! You're so cute and like a little tomato!"

"Bastard! That's not a reason!" Romano protested but it was half-hearted at best and Antonio took this as permission to hug Romano. "Get off me!" This did not go down well with Romano but Antonio hung on and eventually Romano quietened down. A few seconds later, Antonio felt Romano wrap his arms around his waist and stopped himself (again) from squealing. He could count on one hand the number of times that Lovi had willingly hugged him or anyone for that matter.

"I was so worried Lovi, Prussia had told me that you were really sick." And the ex-nation would be finding out why Spain was one of the first superpowers.

"I was fine until I got that stupid phone call." Romano said irritably, a sick feeling had come over him after that call and he could not get rid of it.

"Oh Lovi. Come and lie down." With much grumbling, Antonio managed to convince Romano to lie down on the bed. When Antonio rose, Romano grabbed onto his jacket.

"Stay." He commanded and Spain smiled, because that was as close to a confession as he would get. So he stayed and watched Romano's breathing deepen and slow.

"Sweet dreams Lovi." He whispered before settling down to sleep himself.

**I decided to end it there because it just seemed like a good place to end. **

**Is it weird that I love Romano's insecurity issues with Feliciano and then Spain comforting him over it? Yes? Well I can live with that. They are really cute together especially when Romano is being all stroppy and Spain is all relaxed. **

**Anyway this my first Hetalia fic as well as my first yaoi fic so I would really appreciate it if you would let me how I did and what you thought. **

**So review please and tell me what you thought of this Valentine's Day fic! **


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